In June 1816 Lt. Col. D. L. Clinch and a detachment of the 4th U.S. Infantry established Camp Crawford one mile west of here, and in September 1816 they began building Fort Scott on that site. The fort was needed because of the presence of restless Indians who had emigrated to nearby areas, refugees largely composed of Seminoles and Red Sticks, a hostile faction of the Creeks. Prematurely evacuated in December 1816 and almost immediately pillaged by hostile Indians, Fort Scott was reoccupied in the spring of 1817 by Capt. S. Donoho and his artillery company and later that year reinforced by additional troops of the 4th and 7th Regiments. On March 9, 1818, Gen. Andrew Jackson arrived with his staff and troops of the Georgia Militia and was joined by Kentucky and Tennessee militiamen who had marched through Alabama. At Fort Scott Jackson concentrated troops for his march into Spanish Florida against Indians who had been raiding U.S. territory, taking with him the force at Fort Scott except for 60 men left as garrison. After Jackson’s campaign, the garrison largely consisted of companies of the 7th Regiment, and frontier peace and an increase of malaria probably account for the abandonment of Fort Scott in September 1821.